The Aberration
by Firebrand1612
Summary: They were just six kids and an alien, all considered to be children to their respective species. They never asked to be on the front lines of this war against the Yeerks, the alien race bent on enslaving the entire universe. But this was and is an aberration and these unlikely warriors and heroes are going to make sure they do everything within their power to stop it. The Animorphs
1. The Inception

**A/N: It's Firebrand1612 coming to you with a brand new story! This time it's Animorphs! This series is something I have had in mind for a few years now, but I hadn't read the complete series then, and I didn't want to write about it without adequate knowledge. But recently I've gotten my hands on the complete collection of books in the series and once I finished reading them, I realized that I had a lot of ideas for the story. Another reason I want to write an Animorphs fanfic is because there aren't a lot of Animorph fanfictions, and the ones that are on this site are actually pretty good, but sadly most of them are discontinued, and only a few them are ever completed. But even if I take some time between updates, I won't abandon this story! Now, I present to you chapter one of The Aberration!**

Plot-They were just six kids and an alien, all considered to be children to their respective species. They never asked to be on the front lines of this war against the Yeerks, the alien race bent on enslaving the entire universe. But this was and is an aberration, a mistake, something that was never meant to be, and these unlikely warriors and heroes are going to make sure they do everything within their power to stop it. Which is why they took up the mantle of protectors, and now with the help of the gift they've been given, they might just hold put long enough for help to arrive, or maybe even succeed on their own. This is the Tale of the Animorphs.

Chapter 1: The Inception

Before I get on with this story, I assure that everything I tell you is 110% accurate and truthful.

My name is Montarok, but I don't recall anyone who actively calls me that. Not even my caretaker. They just call me Monty. That's my first name. You might be thinking, _what kind of weirdo introduces themselves with only their first name?_ Well, I have my reasons. Trust me, I really wish from the bottom of my heart that I could just reveal everything to you, my full name, my age, my home address, my school, my hometown. But that would be too risky. After all, I have no idea if you're really one of _them_.

Now, I have to introduce the threat to you, but please don't go screaming around like a crazy person once you find out. If you do that, then they can find you. Also, don't disregard what I'm telling you as fiction, because I completely assure you that this is real. Failure to acknowledge this may result in the infestation of you, and maybe even your family.

You might become Controllers.

Sometimes, I wonder how I grew from a sweet kid who was so obsessed with school and grades, to a battle hardened warrior. I wonder about that for all of us. After all, we were just normal kids until the day of the fateful encounter.

Even though this happen a while back, for some reason I can still remember that day like it was yesterday. I remember what time I woke up, I what I ate for breakfast, how I missed the bus to school that day and ended up running to school in the rain. I guess when you discover something as dreadful as we did that day, it's permanently implanted in your brain forever.

That day, one of my best friends, Marco (he's one of us) and I were walking through school together that afternoon. We'd just come out of math class, the last class of the day, and Marco was grumbling about how he was sure that the math teacher had it in for him.

"Come on, Marco," I teased. "Stop being such a big baby. Perhaps if you actually took time to study the material, or even just paid attention during class instead of making corny jokes to impress cute girls, our math teacher wouldn't pounce on you all the time."

Marco turned to me. "Easy for you to say. You know, I've always had my suspicions about whether or not you were a robot sent from the future to observe human beings in order to spot our weaknesses. That's the only way any kid our age would actually _enjoy_ coming to school. My only doubt is how you act around – Hey, by the way, are you really one to talk about me trying to impress cute girls? Isn't that what you're always trying to do with Melissa? In fact, here she is right now!" I quickly followed Marco's gaze, and my breath caught in my throat. Standing ahead was the prettiest girl I'd ever seen since I started attending this school. She was small and thin, someone you might look at and automatically come to the conclusion that she was a gymnast. She had mesmerizing pale gray eyes, with beautiful pale blonde hair. She wore a bright yellow blouse with flowers on it, blue jeans, and black and white sneakers. I quickly caught myself and refrained from staring, but by that time Marco already noticed it and a devilish grin found its way onto his face.

Melissa Chapman. Daughter of the assistant principal of our school, and the only girl I've ever had a crush on, although in most cases I would rather cut my own tongue out before admitting it.

"See? You totally have a crush on her. I just don't know why you're too scared to talk to her." Marco commented.

"Come on man. You've seen how much of a fool that I make of myself when I go talk to her. If I recall you teased me for a week the first time I talked to her," Marco's grin grew even wider in remembrance. "I just don't want to embarrass myself any more than I already do by asking her out."

"Dude, all you need to do is relax. Just follow the tips I gave you, and you'll do fine. Besides, Jake's cousin and Cassie tell me that girls are always saying that you're cute, and honestly I really wouldn't mind looking like you do man." Marco was probably referring to my unique hair and eye color. See, I was born with silver hair, which I always keep in a curly hairstyle, and bright amber colored eyes, which people often admire.

"Forget it. Let's just leave." I suggested. Without warning, I suddenly I found myself racing forward, and I quickly put my hand up against a nearby locker to prevent myself from falling on the floor. My heart froze, because standing directly in front of me was Melissa. She hadn't noticed me yet, but it she closed her locker door she would easily be able to see me. I spared a quick glance behind me. Marco was standing where I previously stood with his arm stretched out, informing me that he was indeed the culprit responsible for pushing me. I shot Marco a death glare, but he held up his thumbs in response.

I tried to slowly back away from the locker, taking great care not to make any noise, although any noise I would've made would be drowned out by the sounds of various other activities taking place in the school hallway.

Sadly, my plan failed after two steps as Melissa finished her business in her locker and closed the door, immediately seeing me.

 _Schist_ I thought. _Marco, I will murder you and feed your remains to my pets._

"Hey Melissa," I said, wearing a huge smile on my face and simultaneously trying to act cool and suave, but hopelessly failing.

Melissa gave a warm smile and I immediately felt my legs turn to jelly. "Hey there, Monty. What's up?"

"Um, nothing much. I'm just meeting up with Jake, Rachel and some of their other friends," I replied.

"Cool. Well, my dad's probably waiting for me, so I guess I'll see you tomorrow," Melissa said as she walked away. I simply watched as she walked away. Something deep down inside me wanted me to call after her and ask her to hand out, but I was way too afraid. Soon she was out of sight, and Marco came to meet me.

Looking back on that day, I laugh to myself and feel embarrassed whenever I think about my behavior. Back then my biggest worries were trying not to make a fool of myself in front of a girl I had a crush on. But later that day I was going to discover that there much more dire things to occupy my time.

"I don't think I've seen a screw up that bad since Mark Fuhrman," Marco commented. "But at least you tried. Give it two months, and we can try again. Now let's go. Jake is probably waiting for us at the arcade." So the two of us made our way to the mall, because there was this really cool place at the mall where they sell comic books and action figures and stuff like that. Normally Jake, Marco and I usually go there to read comic books and just hang out in general, but Marco wanted to have something like a competition between the three of us for bragging rights over the others. Classic Marco.

Anyway, we arrived at the mall at met up with Jake, and you could immediately tell from the look on his face that he was upset about something.

"What's up man?" I asked.

"Yeah, why the horse face? Although, to be honest, I could barely tell the different between this face and your normal expression," Marco joked, earning him a dirty look from Jake.

A moment passed, and Marco's face adopted a look of understanding. "You didn't make the team, did you?" he asked. The look on Jake's face said it all.

See, that's the thing about Marco. He's really sarcastic and a joker most of the time, but he's actually pretty smart and his body is in really good shape. One time we got in a fight, and let me just say Marco is no pushover.

"It's nothing to feel bad about," I said, trying to console Jake.

Jake sighed noisily. "It's just… Tom was a legend on the junior high basketball team, and now he's the main scorer on the high school team. I know most people were expecting me to make the team without breaking a sweat. But that's not the real problem. He's become really distant, and I was hoping that if I could take his former position we'd go back to the way we used to be."

"Don't worry about the team. Talk to Tom about how you feel." I suggested.

"Yeah. I'm sure that it'll all work out," Marco added. Then he grinned. "Now, let's go. I'm ready to claim those bragging rights!"

So we started playing video games, and it became a standoff, which I expected. You see, I'm naturally good at video games, Marco has this uncanny ability to analyze any game he plays and figure out little tricks, but Jake is able to get the most practice out of the three of us, since he's got something similar to a collection of video games at home. After a while, we ran out of quarters, so we decided to finish our competition some other time. Nobody's brought it up since, so either they've forgotten about it or they think our war is much more important. Most likely the second one.

Anyway, as we were on our way out, we ran into Tobias, a friend of Jake's, if you can call him that. A few months ago Jake caught some bullies about to stick Tobias' head down a toilet and Jake made them back off. Since then he started hanging around Jake a lot, although I catch him staring at Rachel whenever she's around, which isn't really unusual since people usually compare her to a supermodel. The weird thing is she stares at him a lot too, so I guess she has a thing for him as well, which means we'll probably have another Jake and Cassie situation on our hands. I told Marco about it once, and he got all bent out of shape about it, wondering what a tough girl like Rachel would see in a wimp like Tobias.

Attraction works in some really weird ways.

"What are you guys up to?" Tobias asked.

"Well, we _were_ playing video games, but we ran out of quarters, so that's done," I replied.

"Certain people tend to forget that SleazeTroll show up right after you cross the Nether Fjord, and then other certain people forget that Telkhines can only be defeated with _silver_ weapons. Ergo, certain people cause all of out quarters to go down the drain." Marco said, all the while gesturing to me and Jake just in case Tobias couldn't figure it out.

"Are you guys taking the shortcut through the construction site?" Tobias inquired.

"Looks like we're gonna have to," I said. "It's probably the only way we can get back home in time to finish our English paper. Not to mention avoiding being grounded. Although I don't think the former really matters to Marco, anyway. He's already concluded that the entire paper is a waste of time." I added the last part jokingly.

"Do you guys mind if I walk home with you?" Tobias asked.

"Why not?" Jake said.

"Maybe we can use him to embarrass Rachel," I muttered to Marco, and with the devilish smile that appeared on his face I knew I had his approval. We headed towards the exit, where we met up with Rachel, Jake's cousin, and Cassie, her best friend.

Rachel is one of the prettiest girls I've ever met. I'm not into her or anything like that, it's just a fact of life. She has long, blond hair, blue eyes and a sort of wholesome look. She's one of those people who are fashion experts, which is why she never looks awkward in her clothes, and she looks like she could be a magazine model. But she's super tough, which is why it's usually a bad idea to challenge her. Cassie, on the other hand, is her polar opposite. She doesn't really think that she's pretty, but she actually is. She's always wearing clothes that normal people would classify as "uncool". She's African-American, and she usually keeps her black hair short. Cassie is one of those quiet types, is a really peaceful person. She also has a crush on Jake, which he reciprocates, but they're really awkward about the whole thing, so they usually deny it whenever it comes up. More ammunition for Marco.

After we met up with Rachel and Cassie, we took our shortcut through the construction site. We all live close to each other, except for Tobias and Cassie, but it's a bit far from the mall. So there were two ways we could've taken to get home: we could've taken the long way around, which was completely safe, or we could've cut through an abandoned construction site, which was really dangerous, and even more so at night, and we knew this because we'd cut through there during the daytime once, and the signs were definitely there.

So there we were- Jake, Rachel, Marco, Cassie, Tobias and I- six mall rats whose lives were about to change in ways none of us would've expected. We chatted among ourselves, mostly to keep ourselves from getting scared silly at the thought of all sort lowlifes that could be lurking here, waiting to pounce on a bunch of defenseless kids.

Thinking back to our encounter with Tobias, something made me curious. "Tobias, how did you guess we were going to pass through the construction site?"

"Do you believe dreams have meanings?" Tobias asked me unexpectedly. I was caught off guard for a few seconds, and then I thought about the question.

"Hmm. Well, it depends. Most people believe that dreams were messages from spirits or gods or other supernatural creatures. Personally, I think they might be real, sometimes not. After all, I have had a few dreams that come true. Did you have some sort of dream?"

"Yeah," Tobias answered. "Last night a telepathic hawk spoke to me and told me that I should follow you guys through the construction site. Weird, right?"

"Yeah, I guess." I said, although in my mind I thought that I it was an oddly specific dream. After some time Tobias excused himself from the conversation, and looked up the stars. He squinted his eyes for a moment, and then widened them in shock. "Look," he said, pointing up at the sky.

"What is it?" Jake asked, slightly annoyed.

"Just look," Tobias repeated with a combination of awe and seriousness in his voice. He pointed at a blue light in the sky, which was going way too fast for airplane, but then slowed down enough for us to properly identify it. Once we did, it was unmistakable.

"It's a flying saucer!" Cassie blurted out.

And that was where the story of the Animorphs began.

 **A/N: Annnnnnnnd… CUT! How's that for the first chapter? As you can see I'm writing the story from the first person POV, which is actually kind of difficult. I used to be really good at writing in the first person POV, but my beta reader for one of my other stories suggested that I write in third person POV, and I got accustomed to that writing style. I actually attempted to write this story like that, but I really don't see any way that it would fit.**

 **Well, any suggestions, questions, even constructive criticism is welcomed and appreciated! Let me know what ya think! PM, Review, favorite and follow! Firebrand1612, signing out!**


	2. We Meet the Centaurs of Life and Death

**A/N: Well, here's another chapter of The Aberration!**

 **To the Guest who reviewed, thank you very much! Glad you like the story. I like your idea, and I already thought up a way to incorporate it into my story, if you want. It's true that there aren't many ideas that stray away from canon, and that makes your idea even more unique! As for my O.C, well, you'll just have to read to find out! Although I will say this, he is human. But his caretaker is a human, though. You'll find out the story in the next few chapters.**

Chapter 2: We Meet the Centaurs of Life and Death

It's a flying saucer!" Cassie blurted out.

Many people believe that humor is a way for people to avoid acceptance of the reality that stares them in the face, e.g. Marco.

"A flying saucer!" He said, before he burst out laughing. But it was fairly obvious that whatever object that was present in the sky, it was extraterrestrial and definitely _not_ fake.

"Looks like it's headed in our direction," Rachel observed.

"We can't be sure of that," Jake said, his voice so quiet that for a moment I thought I'd imagined it, but the response that followed made it clear that he had spoken aloud, although it may not have been completely intentional.

"It's definitely coming our way," Rachel said, a little more force in her voice, like she was absolutely certain of what she was saying. And she was right.

The UFO had previously been moving so fast that it was difficult to even identify it. But, as it approached us it gradually lost speed, giving us a better view of the object, and informing us that it wasn't actually a flying saucer. It was about medium sized, similar to that of a school bus, having a pod for a front end, its shape resembling that of an egg. Extending from the back of the pod was a long, narrow shaft. There were two, stubby wing-like things, and on the end of wing was a long tube that glowed bright blue on the back end. It also had something similar to a tail, which curved upwards and forward, corning to a point that looked as sharp as needle. In fact, if it wasn't for the mean-looking tail, I would've been ready to declare the spaceship harmless.

"Be careful, guys, that tail thing looks like some sort of weapon and could be dangerous," Jake commented.

"Agreed," Marco said.

As the ship continued to come closer to us, it slowed down even more to the point that while it hadn't fully stopped yet, it was moving at a turtle's pace.

"It looks like it's getting ready to stop," I observed, taking note of the speed at which the spaceship was moving.

"I'm pretty sure it knows we're here," Marco said. "Do you think we should just bolt and forget about this? Or should we run home as fast as we can and get something to record this? If we got this on camera we could become rich!"

"I'm not so sure," Jake said. "If we move, whoever's in the ship might set their phasers on full power and zap our sorry hides." I took note of the fact that Jake was trying to lighten the mood, but that wasn't really successful.

"Phasers are only on _Star Trek_ ," Marco said as he rolled his eyes, a gesture that indicated that he was under the impression that Jake was being a nerd. "Maybe it'll zap your sorry hide. My hide and I have nothing to be sorry for."

"Marco's right," I said. "We're talking real life aliens here. If it possessed any sort of weapons, it would probably have some sort of photo electric gun or something like that."

Both Marco and Jake turned around to stare at me.

"You know, photo electric gun? People believe that if any sentient life form existed out there, their weapons would be mostly light based. There are actually different types of light weapons, because alien might have figured out how to harness and manipulate some the more harmful aspects of the electromagnetic spectrum, like cosmic rays and visible light-"

"NEEEEERRRRDDDD!" Marco interrupted, this time actually earning laughs from everyone. During our conversation, the spaceship had come to a complete stop, now hovering directly above us and messing up all of our hairstyles except Cassie's, due to its shortness. Of course now that the ship was directly above us it just scared us even more, excluding Tobias who looked excited or even happy at the prospect of meeting an alien, which was weird.

People are always saying that Tobias is weird, but I don't think I see anything wrong with that. It's cool to be different.

"It looks like it's about to land," he said. It began to descend slowly until it finally reached the ground, settling down in an open space between piles of junk and half erect walls, and once it did the lights went out completely, letting our hair go back to normal.

Even though the lights had gone out, we could still see the ship very easily, and looked as if it had been in a battle of some sort before arriving here. There were black burn marks along the top of the pod section. A lot of the skin of the pod had been melted off as well. I tried not to think of what the implications of that might be.

"It's really big," Rachel remarked.

"Yeah," Jake responded. "It's about five or six times as big as my minivan."

"Dudes, what are we doing, standing around staring at this thing? We should be telling people, the cops the military, even the president. After all, it's not everyday that an alien spaceship comes landing in an abandoned construction site. We tell someone, and that's our invitation to a world of fame and all the best interviewing television shows you can think of!"

"I think Marco's right. Someone should get a phone or something," I agreed, but nobody moved a muscle, Marco included. I guess we all equally mesmerized by this bizarre phenomenon.

"Maybe we should attempt to communicate with it," Rachel suggested, her hands on either side of her hips, a pose she usually struck whenever she was trying to figure something out. "I mean could we talk to whatever's inside? Would it understand us?"

"Good idea, Rachel. I'll try it first." Tobias said as he walked forward. He held his hands up right next to his head, apparently trying to show what ever was inside that he was unarmed and that he didn't mean to harm it. "It's safe," he called out. "Please come out. We won't try to hurt you."

I'm aware. A voice said, although I don't think _said_ is an appropriate description of what transpired, because we could all clearly hear a voice in our heads, but we were also certain that no one had spoken aloud.

At this point in time I was beginning to wonder if I had gone mad, or this was all some sort of vivid dream. I looked at everyone else, and from the expression on their faces it was clear that they'd heard whatever it was that spoke.

"Did you guys hear that?" Tobias asked. We slowly nodded simultaneously.

"Can you please come out of the ship?" Tobias asked whoever was inside the ship.

I will. Do no fear me. I too do not wish to harm you.

"We won't be afraid," Tobias assured.

"Speak for yourself," Jake muttered, causing the rest of us to giggle, although it mostly due to our nervousness.

A thin arc of light appeared, a doorway, opening slowly in the smooth side of the pod part of the ship. The opening grew, like a crescent moon at first, then a bright, full circle. Then the alien inside the ship appeared. My first thought was that the alien resembled a mythical creature, a centaur to be exact. The creature was covered in fur that was blue and tan and had a head and shoulders and a mostly normal human upper body, except for a few things: it was completely mouthless, it had no nose, only three vertical slits where its nose should be, and sticking out from the top of it's head were two stalks, and at the end of the stalks were two eyes which was a glittery green color, the same color as the ones on his face. Its lower body resembled a deer or maybe a small horse.

You would think that it didn't seem very dangerous and harmless enough, but you hadn't heard of the tail. It was similar to scorpion's tail, very thick and powerful looking. On the end was a wickedly curved, very sharp looking blade like object. The alien gave off the vibe that it was peaceful, but could easily do some serious damage if it chose to.

"Hello," Tobias said. His voice was gentle, like he was talking to a baby. I looked at him and I realized he was smiling as well. For some reason the entire situation made me feel nostalgic. Something made me feel like I had some sort of close connection with the alien, although that was impossible.

Hello, the alien said, once again speaking with a voiceless voice.

"Hi" we replied. Then, unexpectedly, the alien staggered. He fell out of the ship and onto the ground. Tobias ran over to the alien and grabbed him, trying to hold him up, but the alien slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground again.

"Look at his side!" Cassie cried. We looked, and covering the alien's entire right side was a nasty burn, still fresh and untreated as if he'd gotten it recently.

Yes. I am dying, he said.

"We can get help for you," Marco suggested. "We can find an ambulance or something to come help you."

"Let's try to bandage that wound," Cassie said. "Jake, give me your shirt. I can tear it up to make some bandages to cover the wound." Cassie's parents are both vets, and she spends most of her time helping them at their jobs, which is why she knows a lot about animals. Even though this wasn't exactly an animal, I figured that if anyone could help this alien right now, it would probably be Cassie.

To our surprise, however, the alien refused our help. Do not bother. I will die. The wound is fatal.

"NO! You can't die now! You're the first alien to come to earth." Jake shouted out loud. I didn't blame him. I didn't know why back then, but we all felt like we close to this alien in some way, and the idea of him dying made us feel sick inside.

I am not the first. And I will certainly not be the last. There will be many, many others.

"Other aliens?" Tobias asked. "Like you?

The alien shook his big head. Nothing like me. he said, followed by a cry of pain that twisted my insides at how helpless I was to do nothing to ease the alien's pain.

Nothing like me, he repeated. They are different.

"Different?" Jake echoed.

"How?" I inquired.

His answer was what started out constant battle with our enemies.

They seek to destroy you. The strange thing was, nobody thought he was lying or called him delusional. We somehow knew deep down that he was actually telling the truth. Even though he was dying, he was coherent enough to try to warn us of something terrible that was going to happen to us.

They are known as the _Yeerks_. They are different from both my race of people and yours

"Are they already on earth?" Rachel demanded.

Indeed. Many of them are present on this planet. Hundreds of them, maybe even more than that. I am not completely sure.

"Why hasn't the government said anything about it?" Marco reasonably asked.

You fail to understand me. Yeerks are very different from us than you might think. They live in the bodies of other beings. They are… The alien trailed off, his injury taking a toll on him, but by that point I already had an idea of what he was talking about.

"Sort of like parasites?" I suggested.

Yes. Similar to earth parasites, he confirmed. He closed his eyes and concentrated, probably trying to fight the pain of his injury. Suddenly a bright picture popped into out heads. I saw a grayish-green, slimy thing, something like a snail without its shell or maybe a slug, although much bigger, approximately the size of a rat. It was very unsettling.

"I guess that was a Yeerk," Marco said. "Either that or a very big wad of chewing gum."

They are practically powerless without their hosts. They-

We felt a blast of pain, clearly coming from the alien. We could also feel sadness coming from the alien because he knew his time was almost up and there was nothing he could do about it. And that, in turn, filled us with a different kind of pain and sadness.

The Yeerks are parasites. They must find a host to live in. In this form they are known as Controllers. They enter the brain and are absorbed into it, taking over the hosts thoughts and feelings. They try to get the host to accept them voluntarily. It makes the host easier to control. If not, the host may be able resist, but not for long. The host will be under the complete control of the Yeerk, and other humans would never be able to tell the difference.

"Are you saying these Yeerks take over _human beings_?" Rachel asked. "People? And we wouldn't even be able to tell the difference?"

"Um, sir, this is really serious stuff. You should be telling the government about this. They can actually do something about it. We're just six human kids. We can't fight an alien invasion!" Jake exclaimed.

We hoped we could stop them before they arrived, but they were prepared for us. Swarms of their Bug fighters were waiting when our dome ship came out of Z-Space. We knew of their mother ship and were ready for the Bug Fighters, but the Yeerks managed to surprise us. They had hidden a powerful Blade ship in a crater of you moon. We resisted, but we lost. They have already tracked me to this planet as will arrive shortly to remove all traces of my arrival on this planet.

"How would that be possible?" Cassie wondered.

The alien seemed to smile with his eyes. Their Dracon beams will leave nothing behind but a few molecules of this ship, and… and my body he said. Don't fear. I've sent a message to my home world. We find the Yeerks wherever they run to next, anywhere in the universe and continue battle with them. Unfortunately, it will take some time for the Andalites to arrive, a year or maybe even more. By then the Yeerks will already have control of this planet, and the Andalites will seek to purge it. There will be no more hope for your people. You must warn your fellow humans!

"We appreciate your help, but there's nothing we can do. Nobody's going to believe six kids." Marco said. "They'll just think we're trying to play some practical joke or something like that. Even if some of them did, you said that the Yeerks have already infected our people. We have no idea who to trust, and we could end up talking to the wrong person. If we did, the Yeerks would know exactly who to target, and then this entire conversation will have been pointless."

Of course Marco thought ahead. Even if _someone_ believed us, we'd have no way of confirming if the person was a Controller or not. Even if he wasn't, he could end up blabbing to the wrong person.

"I don't care if he thinks he's going to die. We can try to get him to Cassie's parents…" Rachel said.

"That's a no-no, Rachel." Marco countered. "We have no idea if we could carry him. Even if we knew we could, if he doesn't last long enough we'd just end up caught with an alien and run the risk of the Yeerks discovering what we know."

Your friend is right. There's not enough time. the Andalite agreed. Then his eyes brightened. There may be a way…

"What is it?" Rachel asked.

One of you enter into my ship. You will see a small blue box, almost sapphire in color, but very plain looking. Bring it out. And be fast! The Yeerks are almost upon me.

We all looked at each other, before turning to look at Jake. The message was clear. _We want you to do it_.

"Go ahead," Tobias said. "I want to stay with him." He held one of the alien's small hands in his much larger one, and placed the other one on the alien's narrow shoulder. Jake turned to look at Cassie, who nodded encouragingly. Jake took in a deep breath, and walked through the open doorway.

Tobias. the alien leveled his gaze on the aforementioned. You resemble Loren so much.

Tobias froze. "My mother?" He asked so low it was almost a whisper.

The alien shifted his gaze. You all resemble your relatives so much. Suppose fate found it fitting that you would all be friends and maybe even better than the warriors that they once were. he let out a fit of coughs, and Tobias, although confused, began to comfort the alien, while the rest of us just stood there in confusion, looking at each other.

After a little while Jake came out, holding a small box, although from the way he was holding it, it wasn't light. The box was a shade of sapphire like the alien described, and was four inches on each side.

"Here's the box," Jake said as he handed the box to the Andalite.

Thank you.

"Um… was that your family in the picture?" Jake asked, obviously referring to something he had seen on the ship.

Yes, it is.

"I'm really sorry."

The Andalite once again smiled with his eyes. Don't be. You are not the cause of my pain. If they knew what I did they would be proud. Now, there is a weapon I can give you to defend yourselves against the Yeerks.

"What is it?" Rachel demanded impatiently.

I know that you are young; you are not like your parents who were much older. You can't completely resist the Yeerks. But I can give some powers to resist the Controllers, even just a little bit. I can give you powers no other human possessed, not even you parents.

"Powers?"

It is an Andalite device, but the Yeerks do not possess it, the Andalite explained. A technology that enables us to pass unnoticed in many parts of the universe- the power to _morph_. We have never shared this power with any race outside of our own, and there is even a law against it. But due to the urgency of the situation, I am willing to break these rules if it means you will have a fighting chance.

"Morph? What do you mean by that?" Rachel asked.

To change your bodies, the Andalite revealed. To become any other species. Any other creature. Any animal.

Marco laughed derisively. "Become animals? What is this, some kind of comic book?"

You will only need to a creature, to acquire its DNA pattern, and you will be able to _become_ that creature. It requires concentration and determination, but, if you are strong, you can do it. There are… limitations. Problems. It may even be dangerous. But there is not enough time to explain it all… no time. You will have to discover it for yourselves. But first, do you wish to receive this power?

"Is this a joke?" Marco asked.

"No," Tobias said. "This is no joke."

"This is nuts," Marco said.

"Yeah. It's beyond weird." Jake agreed.

"You guys are right. It does seem illogical. But there's a dying alien right in front of us." I said simply.

"I'm in." Cassie said, shocking all of us. I guess she believed what Andalite said without hesitation.

"I think we should all decide together," Jake suggested. "One way or another."

"What's that?" Rachel asked. She was looking up toward the sky. Overhead, two pinpoints of bright red light were shooting across the sky.

Yeerks. the Andalite snarled. Just as well as we could hear his words, we could feel his emotions, and now we could feel his hatred. Our time has run out. You must decide now!

"We have to accept." Tobias insisted. "How else would we be able to take on these Controllers?"

"This is insane!" Marco said.

"I'd like some time, but that's not an option." Rachel said. "I'm in."

"Tobias is right." I said. "We have to save our planet. Besides, it won't be forever. The Andalite said that help will arrive in a year, so we just have to hold out till then. Let's do it!"

"What do you say, Jake?" Cassie asked him. Even though we never mentioned it aloud, I'm pretty sure in our hearts that Jake was our leader, and he had the final decision.

Jake remained silent for a long while, a million thoughts clearly running through his mind. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity he looked at Tobias.

"It's our duty," Tobias said to Jake.

Jake nodded. "Yes. We don't have an option."

The Andalite once again smiled with his eyes. Then each of you, press your hand against a side of the square. We each pressed our hand to a square, and then the Andalite pressed his hand to a square, and when he did something similar to a shock, although not painful ran through my body.

It is done. Now you must escape! the Andalite urged us. But remember this one thing: never remain in a morph for more than two of your hours. Under no circumstances should you do this. Of all the dangers of morphing, this is the greatest. If you remain in morph longer than two hours, you will be trapped, unable to morph into any other creature, and unable to return to your human form.

"Two hours. Got it." Jake confirmed.

Suddenly, we all felt a new emotion emanating from the Andalite. Fear and dread. He was looking at the sky, and I followed his gaze. I identified the vehicles that he termed Bug Fighters, and something else was up there with it.

Visser Three is approaching!

"What or who is a Visser?" Jake asked.

Leave now. Run! He is the most deadly of your enemies. He alone is the Yeerk to possess the ability to morph, the power you have just received. Run!

"No," Rachel said firmly. "We'll stay with you. You said he has the power to morph, and so do we. Six against one! We'll slaughter him"

The Andalite smiled again. No. He won't be alone. Even if he were, he is much more experienced with this power, and possesses many life forms beyond your imagination. Save yourselves and save your planet. The Yeerks are here!

We looked up, and sure enough, the two red lights were sinking towards us. They were joined by a third ship, far larger, black as a shadow within a shadow.

"How are we supposed to fight these… these Controllers?" Rachel asked.

You will find a way. Go! Take this.

The Andalite spoke with so much force that we immediately took off, all of us except Tobias. We watched the Andalite press his hand against Tobias' head, similar to how a father would hold his child, and then handed him the blue box. Then he bolted, stumbling as he ran, and I was sure I'd seen a few tears in his eyes.

A spotlight from one of the Bug fighter things snapped on, completely covering the dying alien and his ship. The other Bug fighter joined in as well, and the Andalite began to resemble a star. The six of us ran as fast we could in order to avoid the spotlight, and we noticed a crumbled wall, which was tall enough to hide us but short enough to allow us to see what would transpire next.

As the Bug fighters descended, it became easier to identify. It was a bit larger than the Andalite's ship having a shape similar to cockroaches without legs. The windows at the front resembled eyes, and on both sides of the head were two very long, sharp, serrated spears. The two Bug Fighters landed on either side of the Andalite ship, and then the larger ship began to descend.

The ship had a choking atmosphere about it, even though we were breathing fine. But the presence of the larger ship seemed to suck all the courage out of us, causing us to have the same level of fear as the Andalite did when he mentioned that the Visser Three guy was coming.

The ship settled toward the ground, and it looked like it was going to land directly on top of an old earthmover that was below it, but as his ship got closer to the ground the earthmover just disappeared. The ship shared some semblance to an ancient weapon. The main part was like the handle of an ax, with a big, triangular point on the front, which I guessed was the bridge. At the end were two curved blade like wings. Compared to the Bug fighters, the blade-like ship was a giant.

Finally, the ship landed, and once the door opened, the creatures that jumped out were so fearsome that Cassie screamed, but Jake managed to cover her mouth before anyone could her it. The aliens looked like walking weapons. They were anthropic, walking on two legs, albeit the legs were bent backwards a bit. On each of their long arms there were curved horn-blades growing out of the wrist and elbow. There were other blades covering their legs as well, and also on their tails. Their feet had talons, like a bird. The neck was snakelike, a beak for a mouth and to finish off the look, three daggerlike horns protruded from their foreheads.

If you can see them, those are Hork-Bajir-Controllers.

We were a bit startled hearing the Andalite's voice, since where we were hiding was a great distance away from his location, but that was probably why his thought speak seemed faint.

Jake turned to the rest of us. "Did you guys…?" He trailed off, but we'd gotten the message.

"Yeah," Rachel answered, and the rest of us nodded.

The Hork-Bajir were a good people, although their fierce appearance may make one not think so. Unfortunately, it is this fierce appearance that made the Yeerks target them first, and now there is not a single one remains free. They are to be pitied.

"Pity? They look like walking killing machines!" Rachel commented. I turned to her.

"Looks aren't everything Rachel. Looking evil doesn't make one evil, and looking nice doesn't make one nice."

"Just like I look like a dunce, but I'm actually one of the smartest kids in school," Marco added.

"Shhh, guys. Something else is coming out." Jake said. They were like massive centipedes, except much longer, and much, much bigger. They had a lot of legs supporting the lower and middle regions of their bodies. The upper region was held upright, and the rows of legs became smaller, with lobster-claw hands. Near the top of their centipede-like bodies, most likely the head, there were four red blob-like eyes, and a round mouth with hundreds of teeth in it.

Those bug-like aliens are known a Taxxons, or Taxxon-Controllers. Unlike the Hork-Bajir, the Taxxons have willingly given their bodies to Yeerk conquest.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was obvious," Marco muttered.

"What did I just say about stereotyping?"

By this time more Hork-Bajir and Taxxons were coming out of the ship and started spreading out, eventually forming a circle around Elfangor and his ship, training a pistol-like weapon on him.

One of the Hork-Bajir must've heard something, because he broke away from his comrades and headed towards our hiding spot, and in less than a minute he was close enough to see us. He lifted his pistol and aimed around as though he was trying to identify a target.

There is a Hork-Bajir headed your way! Be absolutely silent! The Hork-Bajir is trying to hear you, as it has terrible eyesight in the darkness.

Of course, that did little to alleviate me and my friends of our fear. I don't think any sane human being could ever stand right below a Hork-Bajir without covering in some way.

Have courage, my friends. And suddenly, a warm feeling passed through our bodies, something like the comfort someone might give another. The Andalite must've been sharing his emotions with us as well as his thoughts, making us a little less afraid of the alien towering over us. Eventually, the Hork-Bajir grunted, said something indecipherable, and moved back towards the Blade ship, where the aliens were facing.

"They're all standing at attention. Someone important must be coming." Jake whispered.

"How do you know that? It pretty hard to tell when a jelly-eyed centipede or a walking Salad Shooter from Hades is standing at attention." But taking a closer look at them, there was a slight change in their posture.

At that point he appeared.

The biggest shock was to us was his appearance. He was almost identical to Elfangor in terms of looks. However, the there was a big difference in the aura that the two Andalites gave off. Elfangor was warm and caring, while this other Andalite felt like he was wearing a mask of fake sweetness that one could easily tell there was something foul and twisted under there.

That is Visser Three. The Andalite told us solemnly.

 **A/N: Done and done! Sorry this took so long. I have been seriously slacking when it comes to my writing, but I'm done now. Tell me what you think, and Follow, Favorite and Review!**


End file.
